'"The Ghost Road" is a startlingly good novel ...With the other two volumes of the trilogy, it forms one of the richest and most rewarding works of fiction of recent times. Intricately plotted, beautifully written, skilfully assembled, tender, horrifying and funny, it lives on in the imagination, like the war it so imaginatively and so intelligently explores' - "Times Literary Supplement".
The Ghost Road
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An extraordinary tour de force. I'm convinced that the trilogy will win recognition as one of the few real masterpieces of late 20th-century British fiction (Jonathan Coe )
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
From the Back Cover
1918, and Billy Prior is in France once again, a real test case for the 'shell-shock' therapies practised at Craiglockhart War Hospital where, with Wilfred Owen, he was a patient. Prior experiences a late-summer idyll, some days of perfect beauty, before the final battles in a war that has destroyed most of his generation. In London, Prior's psychologist, William Rivers, tends to his new patients, more young men whose lives and minds have been shattered. And remembers the primitive society on Eddystone Island where he studied as an anthropologist before the war. Gathering together both experiences, he sees the gulf between them narrow… Challenging and harrowing, brilliantly incisive yet always compassionate, Pat Barker's Booker Prize winning novel is magnificent listening.
Other Pat Barker titles available from HarperCollinsAudioBooks: 'Regeneration' and 'The Eye in the Door'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy begins with 1991's 'Regeneration', is followed by 1993's 'The Eye in the Door' and ends with 'The Ghost Road' in 1995. I read them back-to-back in 2011 and, even though I expected the trilogy to improve on the phenomenal start it made with 'Regeneration' - considering 'The Eye in the Door' won the Guardian Fiction Prize and 'The Ghost Road' won the Booker Prize while `Regeneration didn't win any prizes - I found it actually became less engaging and less focused with each book, particularly with the final book.
All three books are set during World War I. 'Regeneration' focuses on the war poet Siegfried Sassoon as he recovers from shell-shock in a war hospital in Scotland and is treated by Dr Rivers (who is the main character throughout the trilogy); 'The Eye in the Door' is based more on life in the UK during the war, looking at the issues facing homosexual men and those sheltering deserters and/or pacifists; while 'The Ghost Road' sees Billy Prior, a soldier who was in the war hospital in 'Regeneration' and involved heavily in 'The Eye in the Door', return to the war front. This final book is split between Prior's accounts of the war, Dr Rivers's work in a war hospital and Rivers's flashbacks/recollections of his early anthropological studies among a tribal culture.
The main themes binding the books are the sense of futility and hopelessness that drove soldiers to insanity; the emasculating effects of being stuck in a trench (or any place) where you are ordered to do things and have your fate taken out of your own hands.... Read more ›
All three books are set during World War I. 'Regeneration' focuses on the war poet Siegfried Sassoon as he recovers from shell-shock in a war hospital in Scotland and is treated by Dr Rivers (who is the main character throughout the trilogy); 'The Eye in the Door' is based more on life in the UK during the war, looking at the issues facing homosexual men and those sheltering deserters and/or pacifists; while 'The Ghost Road' sees Billy Prior, a soldier who was in the war hospital in 'Regeneration' and involved heavily in 'The Eye in the Door', return to the war front. This final book is split between Prior's accounts of the war, Dr Rivers's work in a war hospital and Rivers's flashbacks/recollections of his early anthropological studies among a tribal culture.
The main themes binding the books are the sense of futility and hopelessness that drove soldiers to insanity; the emasculating effects of being stuck in a trench (or any place) where you are ordered to do things and have your fate taken out of your own hands.... Read more ›
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful conclusion to a wide-ranging and thought-provoking trilogy, exploring not just the now-familiar horrors of the Great War, but psychological trauma, death, sex, morality and - in the Melanesian scenes in this book - truisms across cultures.
The Ghost Road is in many ways the best of the three, focussing primarally on the psychologist Rivers and the anti-hero of the trilogy, Billy Prior, who, in his return to France, is given a much more meaningful and emotional role than was apparent in the fairly middling second book 'The Eye In The Door'.
One of the obvious criticisms is that these characters - even though many are based on real, historical people - are defiantly NOT people of the 1910s, but - in morals, outlook, and mainly a pervasive sense of modern liberalism - people of our own time. Rivers the psychologist heals the 'shell-shocked' not by the crude electric-shock treatment of his peers, but by empathy, understanding and psychological techniques that would not be out of place in today's healthcare system. The fighting men and patients have attitudes to homosexuality and trauma, and a level of worldly cynicism, that are not apparent in contemporary accounts, but which make them seem much more creatures of our own time.
I do not see this as a bad thing, however; by giving her protagonists modern values, Barker allows her modern readers to empathise with, and understand, her characters better, increasing the emotional impact of their various ups and downs.
This is a wonderful book, haunting and thought-provoking, and deserves its place as one of the best books written about World War One, or even of the last 20 years.
The Ghost Road is in many ways the best of the three, focussing primarally on the psychologist Rivers and the anti-hero of the trilogy, Billy Prior, who, in his return to France, is given a much more meaningful and emotional role than was apparent in the fairly middling second book 'The Eye In The Door'.
One of the obvious criticisms is that these characters - even though many are based on real, historical people - are defiantly NOT people of the 1910s, but - in morals, outlook, and mainly a pervasive sense of modern liberalism - people of our own time. Rivers the psychologist heals the 'shell-shocked' not by the crude electric-shock treatment of his peers, but by empathy, understanding and psychological techniques that would not be out of place in today's healthcare system. The fighting men and patients have attitudes to homosexuality and trauma, and a level of worldly cynicism, that are not apparent in contemporary accounts, but which make them seem much more creatures of our own time.
I do not see this as a bad thing, however; by giving her protagonists modern values, Barker allows her modern readers to empathise with, and understand, her characters better, increasing the emotional impact of their various ups and downs.
This is a wonderful book, haunting and thought-provoking, and deserves its place as one of the best books written about World War One, or even of the last 20 years.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I may be in a minority here when I say that I found this to be the most powerful and profoundly moving book in the trilogy. In this book the sympathetic psychologist Dr W H R Rivers becomes one of the most noble figures of moden literature. Anyone who has undergone counselling or indeed practices counselling will find this book and its predecessors fascinating. It has a resounding ring of truth to it. Billy Prior the shell shocked Officer from a humble background who struggles both with his background and his wounded mind is a fascinating subject for Rivers. But the relationship becomes far deeper than that. It is almost the love between Father and son. River's recollections of his time in the Soloman Islands living with those simple people is a quite brilliant idea. It highlights the ills with society that would cause such injuries to the mind. Amongst the Soloman Islanders such behaviour was beyond their simple understanding of the world. Their happiness contrasting vividly to the woes of post war Britain.
This most moving and eloquent of books is a fitting ending for this monumental trilogy. It is also a humbling elegy for all those forgotten victims of the war and their families, who suffered misery as deadly as any bullet could inflict. Essential reading.
This most moving and eloquent of books is a fitting ending for this monumental trilogy. It is also a humbling elegy for all those forgotten victims of the war and their families, who suffered misery as deadly as any bullet could inflict. Essential reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By B. Brewer
Format:Hardcover
The Ghost Road is the last book of a trilogy written by Pat Barker about World War One. This book focuses on Lieutenant Prior and Doctor Rivers, it looks at both of their journeys and struggles through the war and enables the reader to feel compassion for both of them.
The book begins in a hospital as Barker vividly writes about the patients who are there for various things ranging from `shell shock' to chronic asthma. Barker creates vivid images of not only the front line, but the hospitals too, Hallet, a front line soldier is hospitalised, the way in which his surroundings are described are as if Barker had just watched an episode of M.A.S.H and put the darker moments onto paper. The way his family are described sitting at his beside create a great emotional response as you are reminded that the war affected families as well as soldiers.
Barker tells Priors story from his own perspective, she uses the chapters as his own journal articles, this makes the reader feel closer to his character as they are actually reading what he is both thinking and feeling.
As Prior rejoins the front line, Rivers realises that he has a strong connection with his patients which is superbly shown when Hallet arrives in the hospital, he also realises an unexpected friendship with Prior as he reminisces about the time he spent on an island populated by head-hunters as a young doctor. This is an excellent addition to the book as it reflects the views of not only death, but the values between their culture and the culture of western civilisations.
The conclusion of this book is very moving, it's an ending that is fitting to the trilogy and makes you appreciate the sacrifices that were made during the war.
The book begins in a hospital as Barker vividly writes about the patients who are there for various things ranging from `shell shock' to chronic asthma. Barker creates vivid images of not only the front line, but the hospitals too, Hallet, a front line soldier is hospitalised, the way in which his surroundings are described are as if Barker had just watched an episode of M.A.S.H and put the darker moments onto paper. The way his family are described sitting at his beside create a great emotional response as you are reminded that the war affected families as well as soldiers.
Barker tells Priors story from his own perspective, she uses the chapters as his own journal articles, this makes the reader feel closer to his character as they are actually reading what he is both thinking and feeling.
As Prior rejoins the front line, Rivers realises that he has a strong connection with his patients which is superbly shown when Hallet arrives in the hospital, he also realises an unexpected friendship with Prior as he reminisces about the time he spent on an island populated by head-hunters as a young doctor. This is an excellent addition to the book as it reflects the views of not only death, but the values between their culture and the culture of western civilisations.
The conclusion of this book is very moving, it's an ending that is fitting to the trilogy and makes you appreciate the sacrifices that were made during the war.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disgusting book.
Where are we going to? The gratutious descriptions of buggery, soddomy, and anything else horrible, are in this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bentyhouse
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book
Friends had given me part one and two of the trilogy - in Danish. Therefore I had to read part three as well, and it makes me want to read the first two in English because og Pat... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Henny Stewart
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good read
I enjoyed this book so much that I am now reading more books by Pat Barker.
I like her style of writing. Read more
I like her style of writing. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Geraldine Gregson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fitting Culmination
This final instalment of Pat Barker's trilogy of novels covering the devastating human impact of the First World War is, for me, the finest of the three instalments, just edging... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Keith M
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not what you might expect
I was drawn to this book as I'm interested in WW1 history and repulsed yet fascinated by the appalling waste of life. I was further enticed by the attactive 30's retro cover. Read more
Published 8 months ago by correction
4.0 out of 5 stars
A study of casual violence
I may have made a mistake by reading this book without first having read the others in what I now I understand to be a trilogy. Read more
Published 11 months ago by SCM
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!
I am studying Regeneration, the first in this trilogy, for my English Literature A-Level, and have bought the second and third books to read in my own time. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Laura
4.0 out of 5 stars
What is a civilised society?
Whilst this is possibly my least favourite of the three books of the Regeneration trilogy, in a way it's also the most interesting and certainly the most moving. Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2011 by C. Ball
4.0 out of 5 stars
A side of war you've never seen
Although I'm not an avid reader of fiction, `The Ghost Road' caught my eye because of my interest in 20th century history. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2010 by WillBurton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting
"The Ghost Road" is set in the closing months of WW1 and alternates between a traumatised soldier, Billy Prior, and his physician WHR Rivers. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2010 by Noel
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